Critical Linking: August 24, 2013

For decades, the USSR heavily promoted folk tales as a safe form of “national” culture, recruiting prominent artists to illustrate editions of stories taken from the many ethnic groups that lived in the USSR. These books were not only promoted within the USSR but were also at times translated into English, French, German and other languages- all in the name of promoting Soviet culture, just as today the US state department uses the same (or similar) material to promote cross-cultural collaboration.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that “science fiction publishing is run by men,” says Anne Sowards with Ace and Roc. In fact, despite the ongoing debates over gender in science fiction, a ton of editors and other publishing professionals are women. And there’s also a pervasive belief that the door is closed to women authors in science fiction as opposed to urban fantasy, which a few editors said just isn’t true.